The Roundup: Spring 2017 Volume 5

In this week’s installment…

Can you believe the season is already half over? It sure has gone by quickly, and maybe that’s not a bad thing as I feel like many of the Roundup shows continue to underperform. I’ve nearly given up on Atom: The Beginning but I’m sure Sakura Quest, Bahamut, and Little Witch Academia will be in top form eventually. And hey, at least Tsukigakirei didn’t make me rage this week!

Sakura Quest
Episode 6: “The Rural Masquerade”

Jel: ​​​​The big hook for Sakura Quest is making small town problems interesting so I feel like bringing in a movie production is totally missing the boat. It didn’t work when they tried to pull of something similar years ago with Hanasaku Iroha and I don’t think it’s working now. Literally bringing a movie to town is also a lazy, on the nose way to spur Maki’s character development. I really feel like they could have come up with a better way to do that then just so happening to have one of her successful actress friends blow into town for a shoot. They do drop some too real truth bombs in the conversation with Maki and Sanae toward the end, but overall this episode did not do much for me.

Tsukigakirei
Episode 6: “Run, Melos!”

Marlin: Once again, this show earns my moniker of the Anti-Shoujo. People are tackling their problems despite their weaknesses and anxieties, these two are progressing in their relationship instead of letting it stagnate, and despite your best efforts sometimes things just don’t go your way. I’m glad that Akane’s track disappointment didn’t become a catalyst to putting this relationship on ice. If they are good for each other, they’ll be each other’s strength. They just have to get over the initial jitters and allow their relationship to be more natural. While I’m glad that Akane talked out her problems with Chinatsu, it doesn’t quite seem that things are in the clear yet. Here’s to hoping this show continues to be an adorable chestburster in the meantime. That means more LINE. Never enough LINE.

Artemis:I wasn’t the biggest fan of episode 5, primarily because I was worried that the whole situation with Akane and Chinatsu liking the same guy would be dragged out for 10 episodes or so, with nobody communicating anything and the melodrama eventually taking over the show altogether. Thankfully, TsukigaKirei is a lot smarter and a lot classier than that. Sure, clearly not everything has been resolved on that front, but I’m immensely grateful that Akane and Chinatsu actually (gasp!) talked to one another, and that their respective feelings for Azumi aren’t going to ruin their own obviously close friendship. Because hey, two girls CAN actually like the same boy without going into full-on competitive bitch mode and/or never speaking to each other again – who knew?

Rage of Bahamut – Concerned Dad™ Bacchus is pretty good

Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul
Episode 6: “Anatean Holiday”

Artemis:Is it weird that this episode had me kinda cheering for Nina/Charioce even though Charioce is obviously meant to be a pretty terrible person? It’s weird, isn’t it. What can I say, the dance scene was cute (and incidentally a nice reminder of how visually appealing the show can be). I thought of this episode as mainly filler since nothing of consequence actually happened at all; instead, it seemed a way of both relaxing a bit after the previous episode’s much higher tension as well as to build up expectations about how exactly this master plan of Azazel’s is gonna go down. Still, I guess it was entertaining enough? What I’m not sure about at this point is whether I’m going to remain entertained for 18 more episodes of this. Genesis, with only 12 episodes total and a much heavier action/adventure focus, had a great balance. By contrast, Virgin Soul is a lot more talky and while that in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I do wonder how long I’ll be able to stay invested with this kind of pacing.

Jel: This was cute but I’m guessing Charioce is just bonding with Nina so that she won’t kill him when she turns into a dragon. Assuming that’s the case and both him and Azazel are just using her pure, innocent heart, I hope she comes to her senses and kicks both their asses. Also, I’m going to make a bold prediction and say the cliffhanger for next episode is Favaro showing up at the end. Think about it.

Atom: The Beginning
Episode 5: “Step On It! Maruhige Shipping”

Jel: ​This week’s episode of “Watching Paint Dry: The Anime” somehow managed to make a high speed truck chase boring. The plot is very simple and we all know exactly what’s going on but the writers insist on dragging it out as long as possible. What’s making things more frustrating is we keep getting hints of all these other factions with robots that we could be building up as friends or foes but nothing is being done with that angle. For example, we got another appearance from the one robot Six fought in the show’s last cool moment many episodes ago and ZERO development as to who he is. Something needs to happen soon or I many not be able to put up with this any longer.

The Eccentric Family 2
Episode 6: “Arima Hell”

Marlin: Well, this episode’s title was awfully literal. I did not realize we were going here so soon, I assumed hell was something Yasaburo was going to have to trick his way out of later in the show. With Soun back in the mix, we’re also seeing the plot hit home again. It takes a lot of gall to impersonate your dead brother to his own son, but it’s the perfect way to bring him back into the limelight. The Friday Club is the only part of this show that’s always seemed completely incomprehensible to me. Why does this group of humans exist to eat tanuki? Why do they have so much influence? It seems we’re finally getting some answers to that question in the person of Jyurojin, who Yasaburo hints might be more than meets the eye. For now, all the players seem to be keeping their cards close to their chests, and we’ll have to wait for another bout of foolishness to get some answers.

Little Witch Academia – No cool animation but we did get good Akko faces

Little Witch Academia TV
Episode 19: “Cavendish”

Licensed by Netflix (Release pending, please watch it there when it comes out)

Jel:I guess the only way to make Diana likable is to bring in a few less likable Diana clones. Even Akko was shocked to hear she’s the big softie of the family, but that is technically accurate once you meet her Aunt. I’m not sure how much I actually care as this was arguably the least exciting episode of the series. I was waiting for at least one cool visual flourish or magic trick or something but nope, mostly just standing around talking. I suppose it’s all necessary for the plot but even with that it seems they are setting up both Akko AND Diana to be the saviors of magic. That seems kind of unnecessary as Akko was doing fine as the main character by herself but whatever. I’m guessing next week will be more interesting as we see what’s involved with the family ritual and I’m sure Auntie won’t go down without a fight.

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2 thoughts on “The Roundup: Spring 2017 Volume 5”

Regarding Virgin Soul: Yes this episode was cute, but christ man is this iteration so much slower and less action packed than genesis. As Artemis says that’s not necessarily a bad thing but when Genesis set the bar so freaking high on dialogue, action and plot one can’t blame the viewing public for hoping for more of the same. The animation remains marvelous and this episode hammers that point home. Even the dialogue and cutesy girl meets boy thing is well played out. But im starting to /yaaaawn a but. We need some demon, god and dragon free -for-alls ASAP!

I feel like I’m in a similar situation with every show I’m watching this season. At least with Bahamut it seems like things are going down next week… maybe. It’s also supposedly running 2 seasons so the slower pace might turn OK in the long run.